The Government was accused of “breathtaking laxity” in its arms controls last night after it emerged that officials authorised the export to Syria of two chemicals capable of being used to make a nerve agent such as sarin a year ago.

What, exactly, are those two dangerous chemicals that need to be controlled via “arms control” regulations? You won’t believe me when I tell you. They are:

• sodium fluoride
• potassium fluoride

You can see this yourself in the screen capture of The Independent breaking news story. Note the headline and the subhead. The headline describes “nerve gas chemicals” and the subhead explains them as “sodium fluoride” and “potassium fluoride.”